Ballistic Safe Testing 101

We join Brown Safe for a day testing their toughest security containers.

We join Brown Safe for a day testing their toughest security containers.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

1Ballistic Safe Testing 101

A residential safe is a smart investment for a family that needs to store important paperwork and valuable belongings. But how would you feel if you knew a thief could break into your safe in less than 5 minutes with just a crowbar and a screwdriver?

Thats not to say an ordinary residential safe is insecure; rather, not all of these hefty and seemingly impenetrable cubes are as tough as they look. Household safes are at the bottom end of a security scale that goes all the way up to military-grade protection, and the people who test new safes to see how secure they really are get to spend their days on a test range, firing guns and detonating explosives to probe the limits of secure containers.

Recently, we got to hang out with testers at Brown Safe. It's up to these people to assign a rating to every safe Brown makes, according to the ratings set up by Underwriter's Laboratories back in the 1800s. The lowest level is a Residential Security Container (RSC) rating. That means the unit can resist an attack from common tools for 5 minutes. From there, the classifications get more serious. Next up is the TL-15 rating, which means the safe must resist an attack on the door for 15 minutes by a would-be invader using tools. The highest of all the UL ratings is TXTL-60X6. That means the safe can withstand a fire torch, explosives (8 ounces of nitroglycerin!), and a crowbar and other tools hammering away on all six sides for 1 hour.

We spent a day at Brown's California testing ground, watching the team test a few of their latest safes (and their competitors') against a variety of tool attacks, as well as more aggressive tactics—like a 50-caliber rifle.

Why such extreme measures? Brown has been making safes for 30 years, but these days, a criminal can learn how to break into a conventional safe by watching videos on YouTube. "Safe development is a continual process. It's a constant cat-and-mouse game," Brown Safe vice president Lynel Berryhill says.

About 40 percent of Brown's total sales each year come from military products. Since 2005, the company has been testing safes with ballistic steel. So the top residential safe models are built with a core of ballistic steel. Basically, it's the same stuff the military uses for armoring Humvees to shield the occupants from small-and medium-arms fire and IEDs, and it meets the Department of Defense V50 Ballistic Test for Armor. "We build the vault doors for embassies, armories, and anything that stores weapons or classified documents. That's us," Berryhill says. "Fort Bragg has a facility containing just about every weapon made. They basically have a library of weapons that takes up a huge space, and our doors are on the front."

What Brown won't tell us (or anyone) is the exact makeup of this high-strength armor. It contains carbon, chromium, nickel, manganese, titanium, and other elements, according to Shawn Berryhill, vice president of research and development for Brown. Over time, they've learned to balance these metal combinations with heat treatment to gain optimum values for hardness, tensile strength, and elongation.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

2

Brown's military contracts can call for some extreme. Here's a rough diagram of a nuclear weapon transport container the company is developing.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

3

Many safes and their interior components look formidable upon casual examination. But looks aren't everything. The beefy locking bolts on this safe are too short; they'll bend within the thin-wall carriage that holds them once if an intruder applies the right leverage with a crowbar.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

4

All Brown safes start with at least a 1/2-inch solid-steel door, with additional carbon hardplate and 1/4-inch walls. But the dimensions can creep up to 1-inch or even 1-1/2-inch steel doors, 1/2-inch or 1-inch-steel body panels, and even ballistic steel, as this gun safe has.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

5

Now the guys at Brown want to show off a little. It's time to line up their test: Brown's ballistic armor (right) versus a single competitor's fire safe (center) versus two of those competitors' safes lined up back-to-back.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

6

Licensed weapons specialist and movie stunt shooter Bill Davis mans the 60-pound Browning .50-caliber military rifle for the test. He sets up about 80 yards from the targets.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

7

The .50-caliber shells are about the length of an iPhone and the diameter of your thumb. They can take out a vehicle's engine block with one shot.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

8

The 750-grain shot goes right through the door of the single gun safe—and out the back.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

9

Davis's second shot travels through both of the competitors' gun safes and all the way through a concrete cinder block behind them.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

10

The Brown safe with ballistic steel stops the shot from penetrating the door. The aftermath is a shallow, quarter-size depression in the door. The .50-caliber round was vaporized. The safe's door can withstand multiple rounds. However, Shawn Berryhill says, "Failure does eventually occur—it's generally quite sudden."

A Part of Hearst Digital Media
Popular Mechanics participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.